Labelling People Essay example -- essays research papers

LabellingA label defines an exclusive as a certain kind of person. Defining an do work as degenerate or criminal is non a simple straight forward process. A label is not neutral, it contains an evaluation of the person to whom it is applied. It is a Master billet in the sense that it overshadows all the other statuses possessed by the individual. If an individual is denominate as criminal, mentally ill or gay, such labels bunk to override the individuals status as father, husband, worker, friend or neighbour. Whether or not the label is applied will depend on how the act is taken by the audience. This in turn will depend on who commits the act and where and when it was committed.Deviance is amongst other things a consequence of the response of others to a persons act. Students of aberrance can not assume that they are dealing with a solid category. When they study people who have been labelled deviant (Howard Becker)If the agents of social reckon define youngsters a s delinquents for breaking the law, those youngsters become deviant. They have been labelled as such by those who have the power to make labels stick. However Becker argued aberrancy is not a quality that lies in behaviour itself but in the interaction between the person who commits an act and those who respond to it. From this point of view, divergence is produced by a process of interaction between the potential deviant and the agents of control. Becker then examined the possible effects on an individual being labelled as deviant and that a deviant label can consort to further aberrance. However, Becker argued that this process is by no means inevitable, ex-convicts do dispirit jobs and go straight, drug addicts do sometimes give up their manipulation ... ...e due to lack of empirical support and a conservative policy-making climate (www.mpcc.cc.ne.us). Becker (1963) believes the future of labelling lies in the widespread empirical study of deviance and the various k inds of deviance.In conclusion, once an individual is labelled deviant, the pressure at bottom society to conform to the said norm is an ever demanding and increasing pressure. Whilst the designing of the said individual may well be to follow the lead of normal individuals, once labelled, for whit ever reason it is ever increasingly difficult to return to the normal way of life without this shadow sweep over most.ReferencesBecker H.S. 1963 Outsiders The Free Press New York (Pg 9)Becker H.S. 1963 Outsiders The Free Press New York (Holstein 1993, www.sscf.ucsb.edu)(www.mpcc.cc.ne.us)